Jason Roy should have been picked, and selecting too many Test batsmen is
piling the pressure on middle-order power hitters

England did fantastically well to turn the Test series against India into a brilliant 3-1 victory and I am delighted for Alastair Cook. He deserves credit for the change in England’s fortunes and it is clear the addition of Jos Buttler has been an incredibly positive influence on the team and environment in the dressing room.

My playing duties in the Caribbean Premier League prevented me from watching the last couple of Tests and it would be wrong to pass more comment on England and the series when I have not seen enough cricket to form a judgment.

But the game always moves forward and the challenge this summer for Cook and England is not over yet. The one-day series against India will be a good test of how they stand in terms of 50‑over cricket, an area where much work is to be done if England are to be serious contenders to win the World Cup in Australia next year.

England’s strategy of picking orthodox, Test-style batsmen at the top of the order and relying on the power-hitters lower down to build a big score is not working. England are still playing one-day cricket with Test selection in mind and are not choosing players who produce the brand of cricket that is going to win a World Cup.

In one-day cricket you have to strike the ball with positive intent. In my opinion from Joe Root, Cook, Ian Bell and Gary Ballance there is only room for two of those players in the side not four. It puts an awful lot of pressure on guys like Eoin Morgan and Buttler to come off. If they do not, then England make scores of 250-280 and it is curtains.

It is great Alex Hales has been added to the squad but I hope he does not put too much pressure on himself, or feel forced by those around him, to hit out from ball one.

England could do with one more player like him in the top four who hits the ball and I would love to see Jason Roy in the team. He has had a fantastic summer. He has shots all around the wicket and is a lot more consistent now.

Surely they have to give him a go in the Twenty20 against India but it is a shame he has not been given a chance to be around the England squad in this five-match 50-over series.

It is a perfect opportunity to become immersed in the atmosphere of international cricket rather than a one-off Twenty20 when the format of the game means it could be in the blink of an eye without actually putting a foot wrong yourself.

It was not a surprise that Roy was not picked but I was absolutely flabbergasted when Ravi Bopara was left out of the England one-day squad. He has been their key all-rounder in one-day cricket for the past year, a very talented batsmen who has turned himself into a useful wicket-taking bowler.

He is very popular in the dressing room and an experienced player too so why has he drawn the short straw and been left out? I would love to know the cricketing reasons behind that decision.

England play an Indian side desperate to turn their tour around after a hammering in the Test series which has led to some commentators taking lazy potshots at the Indian Premier League.

It is a cheap shot to blame the IPL and portray the young Indian player as being uncaring about Test cricket. I know Virat Kohli will be hurting and I know how happy Murali Vijay was to score a century at Trent Bridge and almost get another one at Lord’s. It was dream come true for all of them to play a Test at Lord’s.

It hurts these guys every single time they do not score Test runs. The problem is they put too much pressure on themselves because they are so desperate to score Test hundreds, and sometimes that desire to be successful is detrimental to their game.

For the foreign players the IPL is a fantastic learning academy. When we play international cricket in India the conditions are no longer alien to us. Some of us now have home grounds in India, we know the conditions and our opponents. For the Indian players it means they are colleagues and opponents of the best players in the world.

What’s not helping India away from home in Test cricket is not the IPL but the lack of opportunities for playing cricket abroad, which is a huge negative in terms of progression outside India.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India has stopped its players appearing in Twenty20 competitions because it does not want to add broadcast value to tournaments that rival the IPL.

Fine. But it has to loosen its stance on players appearing in first-class domestic competitions abroad if it wants to build a successful Test team. Send players away to spend time in county cricket or the southern hemisphere.

This does not apply just to batsmen. Indian bowlers need to learn the lengths they have to bowl in Australia, South Africa or England. The opportunities are there for every player. We would welcome them in England, they just need to be encouraged to look beyond their home country.